US: Retail sales contract 0.2% in February vs +0.3% expected
|The data published by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday showed that retail sales declined by 0.2% on a monthly basis in February following January's 0.7% growth and fell short of the market expectation for an increase of 0.3%. With the initial reaction, the US Dollar Index edged lower and last was down 0.16% on a daily basis at 97.06.
Key takeaways from the press release
- Total sales for the December 2018 through February 2019 period were up 2.2 percent from the same period a year ago.
- The December 2018 to January 2019 percent change was revised from up 0.2 percent to up 0.7 percent.
- Nonstore retailers were up 10.0 percent from February 2018, while health and personal care stores were up 5.9 percent from last year.
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